As they develop updated plans to reduce or eliminate the sewage that gets dumped into the Charles River and surrounding waterways during heavy rains, the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority and city officials from Cambridge and Somerville will give an update this week on the options being considered to reduce overflows and what those options could mean for water quality.

Parts of Massachusetts have combined sewer systems, in which surface runoff is put through the same pipes as sewage. When it rains a lot, stormwater and groundwater overwhelm the systems. To prevent sewage backups into homes and streets, relief points called combined sewer overflows (CSOs) that are built into the wastewater systems are activated and discharge some of the sewage and rainwater into the nearest body of w

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